1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and/or process for remote access to data and visualisation thereof. It finds particular application in data monitoring.
2. Related Art
Data visualisation techniques are known and clearly useful. There are many scenarios in which a user may have complex and extensive data available to them. The ability to present large data sets in a graphical form which allows a user to gain more understanding of the original data has been the focus of the emerging subject of scientific visualisation for the past few years. In a typical visualisation application, data is represented in the form of a three dimensional graphical object on a computer display screen. The shape and colouring of the object are dictated by the data set from which it was derived. The user has the ability to move and turn the object on the screen and adjust the lighting angles to highlight features in the data set. The use of animation, where the form of the object varies in time according to changes in the base data, is also a valuable mechanism in communicating trends in the data set.
Visualisation is used for instance within the scientific and academic communities to examine the results of simulations and experiments. The data is generally stored locally to the computer on which the visualisation is to be performed and each set of data is approached with the user writing software to produce a different visualisation. Thus visualisation is a mechanism of data access used by technical users who understand the nature of, and access methods for, their data. It has now been realised, in making the present invention, that it is possible and advantageous to find a way to give remote access to data, together with visualisation capability, to non-technical users.